Every week, I look forward to participating in the social media measurement chat every Thursday and interacting with a community eagerly willing to share best tips and practices. Last week’s chat on measuring word of mouth campaigns[2] was informative with plenty of actionable insights. This week’s chat focused on what not to do when participating in social media. A big thanks to my co-host, Sysomos’ Community Manager, Sheldon Levine @sysomos.

#smmeasure chat #14 recap

We all hear about what we should be doing with social media, but what about what we shouldn’t be doing or measuring? If you have any follow-up questions, tweet @smmeasure (without the #smmeasure hashtag). Take a look at the full #smmeasure chat transcript[3].

Q1: Plenty of talk about which KPIs/metrics are valuable in measuring social media success, but which ones to avoid? Why? Via @erkramer[4]

@40deuce: “I think too many people get caught up in growing follower numbers, while they’re important, they’re not everything”

@buona_vita: “I think all those sites that give you twitter stats are cool and fun, but nothing to seriously watch”

@mhandy1: “Pageviews for blogs… I look at engagement!”

@jgombita: “I think another potentially bad metric is focusing on the number of RTs/Likes, rather than the people doing it.”

@marketwire: “Quality trumps quantity. However, it was @guykawasaki that said, high # of followers makes SM more interesting.”

@geoffsnack: “U get far more insight into a user’s reach, influence etc by spending 5 mins on their feed, rather than using klout”

@jasonarican: “I just want to say any metric that isn’t fully explored. Share of voice for ex. What contributed to numbers?”

@iamChuckHarris: “Other metrics I look at is site traffics. A lot of traffic only means so much if there is little conversation.” “Especially sentiment. It either has to be manually rated or looked at over time. Not very accurate as a snapshot”

@sabrinascott: “eNewsletters – the number of people who opened the email, when you really want to know how many actually made it to your page.”

@JPedde: “I love Klout, but it only really measures Twitter. FB doesn’t matter much to me. I wish it graded LinkedIn & other platforms”

Q2: What are some measurement mistakes you’ve made or seen others make?

@Fancy_Lad: “Measuring metrics that don’t equate to goals of the marketing plan. If you’re on SM to sell X, measure its effect on X.”

@unhabit: “limiting sm measurement to sm channels and not other channels like search”

@mhandy1: “I have seen people try to find the dollar sign in Metrics… that is a lagging indicator on SM” “take that 1 step further… if you don’t have an objective why do you even bother measuring”

@nigellegg: “Correlating SM measurements with google analytics and ecommerce sales really important.” “Also important to do a qualitative analysis of what people are saying – tone, content, etc, not just keyword counts”

@jasonarican: “First realize that it’s hard to do what we preach. So it starts with following through on our part”

@theelusivefish: “Communicate. Educate. We have the knowledge of why it’s a mistake. We need to share + spread + champion.” “One of my first questions, ‘OK – so what are we trying to accomplish here?’”

@djwald: “I’m, like, such an expert b/c I’m on SM all the time!” “I do nothing BUT hang on SM all day. I’m a SM expert.”

@erkramer: “I read Mashable, so naturally I’m a SM expert”

@JPedde: “I’m an early adopter for every SM platform out there. I’m an SM expert” “Ooo do we think that Hallmark will declare, in addition to Administrative Assistant’s Day, a ‘Social Media Guru’ day?”

@40deuce: “I have over 500 facebook friends. I’m a SM expert”

@nigellegg: “I’m a social media expert – my client introduced me as that the other day, so it must be true”

@digitalmention: “I RT everything everyone says, so I’m a SM expert.”

@marketwire: “I’m a SM expert because I use the words: Engage. Authenticity. Conversation every 5 seconds.” “I’m a SM expert because my Klout score is a gazillion, which means I’m simply better than you”

@EbA: “I’m actually an S&M expert but somebody made a typo”

Tip of the chat from @mhandy1[7] – “I don’t think every brand should use SM… it’s better to have no presence than a lame one”

Check back here every Friday for chat recaps and transcripts. Join the Marketwire Facebook page to get #smmeasure weekly topics. If you have any questions for the community, tweet @smmeasure or @marketwire or send me an email nshin[at]marketwire.com.

You can also join the #smmeasure LinkedIn Group to connect with others interested in social media and measurement. See you next week at 9:00 am PST, 11:00 am CST, 12:00 pm EST, 5:00 pm if you’re in London, and 3:00 am Friday if you’re in Melbourne.

For those that enjoy Halloween, have fun and be safe. See you next Thursday.
Nick